May 6, 2008
So we’re taking our afternoon stroll down to the post box (it’s all go up here in the countryside, I tell you) when we pass a man who is sitting parked in his car, quietly reading his book. We say good afternoon, he says good afternoon, we walk down to the post box, we stand on the bridge for a while to see if there are any dipper (there aren’t), we say hello to the woman who keeps goats, we buy some eggs using the honesty box outside the cottage that sells eggs, we walk back (look, we’ve quit our jobs, our telly doesn’t work, the internet is operated by means of some string and two tin cans - we have to stretch these things out somehow), and he is still there, still reading. We say hello, he says hello and we pass on by.
I’m guessing he hasn’t told his wife yet that he’s lost his job. Anybody got any other suggestions?
May 6, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Maybe it was just a really, really good book?
May 7, 2008 at 6:08 am
It’s the Annual General Meeting of the Caledonian Book Club.
May 7, 2008 at 6:56 am
You don’t give any indication of his age but he may be retired and finds it hard being at home all day being told what to do, such as gardening or shopping. Anyway it’s got to be better than sitting watching daytime TV! xx
May 7, 2008 at 3:38 pm
I have a friend who quite often drives up to the big bridge near Ipswich and just sits in her car for a while listening to music watching the river go by. People are odd
May 7, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Have we considered that he may just have nothing better to do with his time?
May 7, 2008 at 5:13 pm
I can think of nothing better to do with one’s time than read a book … but perhaps not while driving. Perhaps as Sharon suggests, he’d reached a particularly good bit and had pulled over so he could concentrate. Sadly, it wasn’t this one…
May 8, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I do this all the time. Is it strange?
May 8, 2008 at 6:59 pm
It sounds as if he is from the local Special Branch.Or the McBill as it is known locally. Pretending to read a book is an age old cover. He may be under instructions to look out for newcomers-and you fitted the bill-no pun intended
May 8, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Kay - clearly not, but why in your car and not in the comfort of your own home?
Huttonian - no doubt investigating the pressing crime of dishonesty in using the honesty box…
May 8, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Because the house is full of husband, son, two Cairn terriers and a shitload of work I should be doing. If I didn’t take my books out to read, I’d never read anything.
May 9, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Yes monitoring the abuse of honesty boxes is a SB role, albeit, low priority